The present invention relates to the technical field of a digital image processing for use in digital photoprinters and the like, more particularly to an image processing method and an image processing apparatus, which make it possible to obtain outputs from both of a photographic print and an image file with a simple operation and an excellent operation efficiency.
An image captured on a photograph film such as a negative film and a reversal film (hereinafter referred to as a film) has mainly been printed onto a photosensitive material (printing paper) by means of a so-called a direct exposure, which is performed in such a manner that an image on the film is projected onto the photosensitive material to be exposed.
On the contrary, a printing apparatus using a digital exposure, that is, a digital photoprinter has recently been put to practical use, which prints an image recorded on a film in such a manner that the image is read out photoelectrically to be converted to digital signals, the digital signals undergo various kinds of image processing to produce image data for recording, and a recording light modulated in response to the image data scans and exposes a photosensitive material to record a latent image thereonto, thus obtaining a finished print.
The digital photoprinter typically comprises: a scanner (image reading-out unit) which allows a reading light to be incident onto a film and re ds out a projected light to photoelectrically read out an image recorded on the film; an image processing apparatus which performs a predetermined processing for image data read out by the scanner or supplied from a digital camera or the like to obtain the image data, namely, exposure data, for image recording; a printer (image recording apparatus) which scans a photosensitive material by, for example, a light beam scanning depending on the image data output from the image processing apparatus to expose the photosensitive material, thus recording a latent image; and a processor (developing unit) which performs a developing process for the photosensitive material exposed by the printer to produce a (finished) print bearing a reproduced image.
The digital photoprinter as described above can perform processing (suit) of an image by processing the image data. Accordingly, the digital photoprinter performs a gradation adjustment, a color balance adjustment and a color/density adjustment desirably, and can achieve a high quality print that could not be achieved by a conventional direct exposure.
The digital photoprinter deals with an image as a digital image data, and hence the digital photoprinter can output as a print not only an image captured on a film but also an image captured with a digital camera and the like and an image obtained by communication means such as Internet and the like.
Furthermore, since the digital photoprinter deals with the image as the digital image data, the digital photoprinter can output not only a photographic print but also image data (image file) of an image reproduced on the photographic print onto various kinds of recording mediums such as CD-Rs and MOs (magneto-optical recording mediums). Thus, both of the photographic print and the image file (recording medium recording the image file) can be offered according to a demand from a customer (client requesting a print preparation).
The applicant of this application discloses an image processing apparatus (image recording apparatus) capable of outputting both of the photographic print and the image file in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 117262/1998 and No. 234514/1999. According to the apparatus disclosed in these gazettes, it is possible to output both of the photographic print and the image file if necessary to offer them to a customer.
However, a demand for image quality of the photographic print and a demand for quality of the image file (image quality of a reproduced image) have been stronger. Even when both of the photographic print and the image file are output, it is natural that outputting of both of the photographic print and the image file should be performed by a simpler operation and with a high operation efficiency.
Specifically, a demand for the output of the photographic print and the image file has been recently stronger, and an apparatus capable of outputting a higher quality image with a higher efficiency and having a more excellent performance has been demanded.